It has been a month since I had my LASIK surgery. About 3 days ago I noticed that my right eye is slightly red on the white part. I work on the computer a lot throughout the day and I live in a climate where the weather is sunny and dusty. Is this redness pink eye or is it a side effect from my LASIK procedure?
Almost Everyone has experienced red, bloodshot eyes at one time in their life or another. Sometimes the redness only affects one eye, sometimes both eyes are affected. Red eyes are caused by swollen or dilated blood vessels on the sclera which is the white outer surface of the eye. When you notice that the appearance of the white of your eye is red you should know that the degree of redness can range in its severity from a bright red that can be just a spot or it can completely covers the sclera to a few enlarged blood vessels that look like red or pink lines in the whites of the eye.
It is not uncommon after you have LASIK to have a few spots of broken blood vessels on the whites of your eye. They are simply a side effect from the procedure and are meaningless. They go away within a few days. Dr. Holzman will let you know if you have them and although they do not look so great, they will not affect your visual outcome and go away a few days post op. Because you had LASIK over 3 months ago, Red eyes for you would be more commonly caused by allergies from environmental conditions like the dust, or eye fatigue and dryness from a lot of computer use. In this case, a red eye causes no irritation at all other than dryness and we recommend using Refresh tears. If your redness is accompanied by eye pain, itching, eye discharge or swollen eyes or visual disturbances such as blurry vision you should see your doctor because it could likely be an infection such as Pink eye and should be treated.